


The art of Hand Holding

by AnonymousSources



Series: The Art of Taking a Chance [1]
Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: AU, F/F, Fluff, So Much Cuteness, Truth or Dare, hand holding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-21
Updated: 2016-03-21
Packaged: 2018-05-28 02:05:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6310771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonymousSources/pseuds/AnonymousSources
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"My friend dared me to hold your hand while we are at the mall and I did but you haven't really let go and now we are just holding hands together as two strangers and I don't know how to react"</p>
            </blockquote>





	The art of Hand Holding

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been wrtiting this piece instead of studying for my History midterm. Can you say priorities? Psh who needs history anyway. Hope you enjoy!

Laura should’ve known Lafontaine had alternative reasons for wanting to come to the mall. They hated the mall with a passion, therefore surprising Laura when they brought up hanging out at the mall during a particular spout of intense boredom. That’s what Laura had chalked up their suggestion to anyway. Boredom. 

Unfortunately (for Laura) Lafontaine’s motives extended past a cure for apathetic listlessness.

“Come on Laura. Play along. It’ll be fun.” Lafontaine said, practically begging on their knees for Laura to join in in what was supposed to be a “harmless game of truth or dare”. “Absolutely not.” Laura replied, not even entertaining the idea of having to go up to random strangers and embarrass herself. She should’ve known Lafontaine wasn’t serious about coming to the mall to do ACTUAL mall things like shop or hangout, as shown by their twitchiness when they walked through doors. And after walking around for all of ten minutes, Laf had finally revealed why they really wanted to come to the mall.

“Seriously? It’ll be fun I promise.” Laura gave them a skeptical look. “Last time I let you lead me into a game of truth or dare it ended up with me stranded on the roof of the Zeta house in a kiddie pool of creamed corn while you ran around the yard trying to put the fire out on Kirsch’s pant leg.”

Lafontaine gave her an apologetic look. “I do admit that got a tad out of hand…” 

“A TAD?!” Laura looked at them incredulously at the thought of THAT Halloween disaster being known as something other than a complete and utter disaster. “Okay fine. Yes. It got completely out of hand but I see no kiddie pools or Zeta houses anywhere in sight and there is a fire extinguisher in the food court. Come on, L. Live a little.” Laura continued to look at them unconvinced. “I’ll buy you a pack of those chocolate chip cookies you like…” They goaded. And that sealed the deal for Laura.

“Ugh. Fine.” Laura grumbled as Lafontaine gave her a look of excitement and began scanning the mall for unsuspecting victims in one of their truth or dare games. “Okay! Let the games begin!”

The next hour was filled with utter embarrassment and humiliation, for Laura at least. Laf had a weird knack for being able to come up with the most weirdest and disgracing dares while Laura could only come up with things such as “go up to the cashier and ask for a box of tampons.” 

So far Laura had to; trip an fall on her face in front of a large group of thirteen year olds (all of which were SUPER rude to her in their pointing and reenactments), giving a hug to the next person who walked out of hot topic and refuse to let go for any reason, running around the mall frantically yelling about how she lost her voice and needed help finding it, and the most embarrassing so far, pretending to flirt and passionately make out with a wooden spatula from a houseware store in front of the tall (ridiculously gorgeous) redheaded cashier at the counter.

“You know this seems a bit unfair.” Laura complained after they were awkwardly asked to leave the houseware store after Laura’s little “stunt”. “I’m getting the worst of this!” Lafontaine smirked and shrugged, still chucking from the love scene in the store. “Don’t hate the player hate the game. Come up with some better dares. Look I’ll go easy on you this round.” They said, looking around until their eye once again caught on the perfect victim for one of their dares. Laura saw the scheming look in their eye and gave them a reproachful look, knowing something embarrassing was about to come up once again. “I dare you to go up to that dark haired girl and just hold her hand. Don’t say anything. Just hold her hand and sit with her until she lets go.” Laura turned her head towards where Lafontaine pointed and dragged her eyes up the brunette woman sitting with a curly haired redhead. 

“No way.” She deadpanned, noticing that the girl who looked like a freaking model was downright gorgeous. “I pick truth.” Laf gave her a bored look. “Truth isn’t a choice in this game. Just do it. It’ll be awesome.” Laura bit her lip nervously. “Fine but only if you go up to the curly haired redhead and offer to pay for a ride on the toddler train.” She gave a now very nervous looking Laf a smug look as they looked towards the curly haired ginger, all enthusiasm in playing the game drained. 

_ Ha not so fun when the shoes on the other foot now is it!  _ Laura snickered to herself as she watched Lafontaine go through a series of emotions before steeling themselves and shooting her a  _ you’re going to regret this later _ look.  

Laura watched, silently giggling to herself, as Lafontaine squared their shoulders and walked towards where the two girls were sitting on a lone bench, the brunette lazily relaxing against the back reading a book while the ginger sat ramrod straight and seemed to be talking tersely to the brunette. 

She watched as lafontaine approached the girls’ and stood before the ginger, awkwardly shifting as they pulled out a five dollar bill from their pocket and offered a ride on the train. The curly haired girl looked at Laf with a mix of confusion and slight adoration before agreeing and walking towards the line of toddlers waiting for the tiny train’s next round. Lafontaine followed quickly behind but not before they shot Laura a victorious smile and mouthing,  _ your turn. _ Laura gulped.

She studied the brunette who seemed indifferent towards the awkward scene that just happened right next to her, whose attention had been focused purely on the novel in her hand. The girl was beautiful with dark wavy hair brushing just passed her shoulders and laying nicely against her plain black shirt. She was wearing skin tight leather pants (making Laura’s mouth go embarrassingly dry) and combat boots. Everything about her screamed punk rock with a don’t mess with me attitude. Laura gulped once more

Well if Lafontaine could ask a stiff looking redhead who they thought was crush worthy on a tiny train ride for 5 minutes, she could certainly hold hands with this broody looking teenager for two seconds (and possibly risking a punch to the nose). 

She steeled her nerves before quickly walking the short distance to the bench and sat down in place of the redheaded friend. The girl didn’t even look up from her book as she turned the page and kept reading, her unoccupied hand resting next to her. 

_ Okay phase one complete. Now just slowly scoot yourself over. That’s it, not to fast now. Look at me just shifting towards this random stranger. No weirdness over here just sharing the bench, pay no attention. Keep on reading that fairly interesting book you have there.  _ The girl twitched a little at Laura’s shiftiness but continued reading as if Laura wasnt scooting closer one millimeter at a time. 

At the pace Laura was going, Lafontaine and the friend would be back before she could even begin to reach for the girl’s hand, but Laura continued to sit there nervously, eyeing the brunette’s unheld hand. 

_ Come on Hollis. Just do it. Girl the hell up. _ And before Laura could over think it (hell she already was) she quickly moved her fingers down the girl’s wrist before sliding her hand in and intertwining their fingers. She held her breath, screwing her eyes closed and waiting for the girl to drop her book and punch her in the face. But no punch came. Laura slowly opened her eyes just a tiny bit and fully opened them when she saw the girl still. READING. Her face unchanged except for the slight quirk of her eyebrow and a small smirk on her face. 

Laura felt a fire in her lungs before slowly releasing her breath in a small huff of air and looking at the girl inquisitively. The brunette paying no mind to the fact that a total stranger was now holding her hand. She slowly turned another page in her book and kept reading just the same as before, the only difference with Laura now holding her hand. 

A few minutes passed with Laura being rightfully confused at the dark haired girl’s lack of notice before she began to slowly relax. As her nerves calmed down marginally, she took notice at how well the girl’s hand fit in with her’s. It was soft and kind of cold but also slightly warm against Laura’s somewhat clammy hand. Her fingers fit in nicely in the spaces between laura’s fingers and the pressure wasn’t too hard nor too soft. It was… comforting. 

Time began to pass as Laura fully relaxed against the back of the bench and enjoyed the comfort of holding the brunette’s hand. She figured Lafontaine would be back fairly soon as the train ride was only five minutes long so she just sat in serene silence waiting for her friend to drag her away. She was really not looking forward to that moment. She felt she could stay here forever. Holding this girl’s hand, listening to her turn the pages in her small book every so often. 

Just as she started people watching and coming up with funny stories about the people who passed by, Lafontaine and a  _ very _ smiley redhead ran up to the bench, rosy cheeked and beaming. “Hey Laura!” They said, eyeing the two girls’ clasped hands before shooting her a small smile and pulling the redhead up next to them. “I want you to meet Perry!” Perry gave Laura a warm smiling and stuck out her hand for a polite handshake before noticing that Laura’s hand was currently entangled with her friends. “Hello Laura. I see you’ve met Carmilla.” She stated, giving a pointed look towards their hands. 

Laura shot her a shy smile before moving to release their hands, unwillingly but knowing it that she couldn’t keep holding the brunette’s hand forever. Before she could let go however, the girl, Carmilla, squeezed her hand a little tighter, refusing Laura the option of letting go. She  _ finally _ put down her book before shooting the two redheads in front of them a glare. Laura’s heart stuttered in her chest for just a fraction of a second.

“Weren’t you two busy off playing on some insignificant toddler train or something?” And at that statement Laura’s heart completely stopped. Carmilla’s voice sent chills down her back at the depth of it. And the fact that she was insinuating that she wanted Laf and Perry to leave made Laura giddy. Laf shot her a bright smile.

“Yes but we’ve been riding that train for the past half hour and as fun as it was,” She shot Lafontaine a happy smile that Laf returned with a dreamy look. “It’s time for us to leave. We promised my mom we would be there around three to help out with decorating the baby shower.” 

Carmilla gave her a bored look before sighing and looking towards Laura for the first time since she had sat down half an hour before. “Well creampuff, as wonderful as it has been holding your hand it looks like Curly Sue over here is right.” Carmilla slowly (and what seemed reluctantly) let go of Laura’s hand, brushing her fingers ever so softly over Laura’s palm before finally releasing it and standing up. Laura felt the coldness between her fingers and immediately missed the warmth Carmilla’s hand provided, wishing to have just a few more minutes with their hands entwined together. 

Laura quickly scrambled off the bench, standing in front of Carmilla before realizing she probably looked like a huge dork and balanced out her stance, nervously shuffling her feet and refusing to meet Carmilla’s eyes. She noticed Laf distracting Perry with something shiny in a cleaning store and reminded herself to definitely thank them later. 

Carmilla crossed her arms and Laura finally looked up, meeting her eyes. They were a deep gorgeous brown with flecks of gold that was almost too distracting. “Um… sorry about the whole awkward hand holding thing. Me and Laf were playing a dumb game of truth or dare and they dared me to hold your hand which I would agree is a little dangerous considering you are a complete stranger and could’ve been a crazy psychopath intent on murdering me--” She shut her mouth as soon as she saw Carmilla giving her an amused look and realized she had been rambling. 

Carmilla gave a small chuckle before giving Laura a smirk, which Laura couldn’t help but find slightly endearing. “You’re too much Cupcake. And I didn’t mind the hand holding. It was kind of… nice.” Laura noticed the slight pinking of Carmilla’s cheeks as she said it. The fact that Carmilla had enjoyed holding Laura’s hand just as much as she enjoyed holding hers sent a rush through her and gave her the confidence to say, “We could do it more often if you want…” 

Carmilla took a step closer towards Laura and slowly reached down to intertwine their hands once more, causing Laura’s breath to catch and immediately send blood rushing to the back of her neck. “I think I’d like that very much.”

**************

Laura brushed her fingers along the phone number written in black sharpie marking the length of her arm, knowing her dad would have a fit as soon as she got home. But she didn’t care. She was on cloud nine.

“You know you totally owe me for this by the way.” Lafontaine said smugly from the driver’s seat as the sped by the houses in Laura’s neighborhood. 

“And you still owe me those cookies you promised.”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr sweetlybeautifulenemy.tumblr.com


End file.
